D The future holds plenty of pain for Goldman Sachs’ biggest rivals – that is, according to Goldman Sachs.

A Goldman research report from senior bank analyst William Tanona predicted a nearly $19 billion charge for Citigroup as it wrestles with collapsing values in its collateralized debt obligation portfolio, paired with the possibility of a sharp 40 percent reduction in its dividend.

Also due for a scalping: Merrill Lynch, whose own CDO woes might lead to up to an $11.5 billion charge, and JPMorgan Chase, in line for a $3.4 billion charge – double Tanona’s earlier estimate.

In predicting “a couple of quarters” before the credit crunch is digested, Tanona argued that Citi’s most pressing need is likely “to preserve or raise additional capital.”

To keep its 54-cent dividend, Tanona wrote, Citi would need to raise an additional $6.2 billion.

Tanona’s argument about the role of capital preservation and the dividend largely parallels that of CIBC World Markets analyst Meredith Whitney, who said on Oct. 31 that looming credit losses had left the seemingly invincible bank sharply undercapitalized.

The following weekend, as the stock collapsed, Chief Executive Charles Prince resigned. Vikram Pandit was named as his replacement weeks later.

While sell-side brokerage analysts have appeared to be involved in a game of one-upmanship in releasing estimates of increasingly massive write-downs, the fact that both Citi and Merrill have new leadership does speak to the inevitability of a so-called house cleaning.

Such a sharp writedown has ample historical precedent.

As one hedge fund trader told The Post, “Wouldn’t you want to write everything down to zero as the new guy, blame it on the old regime and then get to gradually mark it back up when you realize that you over-reacted?” roddy.boyd@nypost.com